Students On Campus | Photo by Bethany Althauser | The Wright State Guardian
By: Kristin Hosey
Professor of Political Science Dr. Lee Hannah and his Campaigns and Elections class administered a survey to 384 students at Wright State University. The survey offers a glimpse into students’ political leanings and intentions ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Student Kristin Hosey explains the reasons there is a rise of Abortion and the Economy as primary voter concerns.
The Survey
In early October 2024, Wright State students were polled about their opinions regarding the upcoming November Presidential Election.
The poll, which received nearly 400 responses, gathered information such as basic demographics, vote choice, party identification, media consumption, and issue priorities with the aim of analyzing student preferences in relation to their backgrounds and ideologies, as well as comparing those preferences to national poll data about the election.
The WSU student respondents were instructed to select three issues which most informed their presidential vote choice. Among the possible selections were issues of domestic policy such as the Economy, Abortion, Equality, State of the Democracy, Election Integrity, Health Care, and Gun Policies as well as foreign policy issues such as Immigration, Climate Change/Environmental Policy, and the Wars taking place in both Gaza and Ukraine.
Of these issues, students indicated that Abortion, the Economy, and Immigration had the most influence over their vote choice for president, with the Economy and Abortion having each been selected by over fifty percent of respondents.
The War in Ukraine and Election Integrity were the two least influential issues, receiving only 7.6% and 8.8%, respectively.
While many of the issues were divided relatively equally across party identification (the choices of which included Democrat, Republican, or “other”), some issues revealed deep divides in priorities among the parties.
Democrats chose Abortion as a priority 32.6% more so than did Republicans and also showed that they were more concerned about issues such as Equality, Racial Issues, Health Care, and Climate Change.
Republican students overwhelmingly chose the Economy as their top priority, differing from Democrats by a staggering 41.2%. Republicans also chose Immigration significantly more than Democrats with a gap of 35.8% between the two parties.
Two polls from Pew Research, one published in 2020 and the other in September of 2024 show that the economy has remained at the top of voter concern, while the issues of abortion and immigration have become considerably more important to voters over the past four years.
Immigration, an issue at the forefront of Donald Trump’s campaign platform, was selected by 52% of all respondents in 2020, rising to 62% in 2024. A similar increase occurred with the issue of abortion, having been selected by 40% of respondents in 2020 and 51% in 2024.
One possible explanation for the increase in concern about abortion rights is the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson decision to overturn Roe v. Wade which effectively removed the right to abortion at the federal level.
A similar question was asked in a September 2024 New York Times/Siena Poll about the election, taken by 1,695 likely voters.
In this poll, the economy rested comfortably at the top of voters’ concerns overall; while Abortion came in second, selected overwhelmingly by Democrats; and Immigration, which came in third, was selected overwhelmingly by Republicans.
When comparing the two polls, it appears that Wright State students’ priorities are mostly consistent with that of the greater electorate.
